America’s Cup longshot: Exhibition in New York

San Francisco may have to wait a few months to get its first taste of America’s Cup-style competitive racing, with race organizers looking to move the August exhibition race scheduled for the bay to New York.

The switch is a longshot, but organizers say it would prove invaluable in drumming up national attention – and attendance – for the America’s Cup challenger and finals matches in San Francisco in 2013.

While the big races are still more than a year away, sailing certainly hasn’t captivated the mainstream American sporting public. Turnout for exhibition races in San Diego in December was disappointing. Ahead of a June 1 entry deadline, only four teams are lined up to race for the Cup. Organizers originally hoped to have about 10. Race organizers have also voiced difficulties in landing national and international corporate sponsorships.

That’s why regatta organizers, led by billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, have their eye on New York, with its combination of media concentration, affluent residents and national appeal.

“One of the challenges we have is to engage America,” said Stephen Barclay, an executive with the America’s Cup Event Authority, Ellison’s regatta group. “Having these things racing around the Statue of Liberty would engage the East Coast.”

But Barclay put the chance of that happening at “less than 20 percent” given the time frame and logistics. Officials in New York have already shot down the idea once, he said. Whether in New York or San Francisco, the final day of racing from that match is to be broadcast live on NBC.

The exhibition races, dubbed the America’s Cup World Series, feature 45-foot catamarans and are being held around the globe. San Francisco would still have an exhibition race in October before the challenger series for the right to battle Ellison’s Oracle Racing for the Cup, featuring 72-foot boats, kicks off July 4, 2013. The Cup finals would be held that September.

– John Coté

A rosy outlook: The budget news keeps getting better for San Francisco, even though the city still has a projected deficit next year of $170 million.

That’s a measurable improvement over the $229 million gap for the fiscal year that starts July 1 that was projected only last month, and substantially less than an earlier assumption of a $458 million budget hole.

“Things are heading in the right direction,” city Controller Ben Rosenfield said Wednesday after releasing a joint report with the budget teams from Mayor Ed Lee‘s office and the Board of Supervisors. “There is still a long way to go, though.”

He attributed the improved outlook to both city spending constraints and improving hotel, payroll and sales tax revenue.

While the new joint five-year financial report assumes less money coming from the state and federal governments, the overall picture is clouded by political maneuvering in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. Other factors include upcoming contract negotiations with all of the city’s labor unions except police and fire personnel.

Lee, in a statement, said the budget report was “more good news” but “tough choices” remain. The report projected deficits of $312 million for fiscal 2013-14, $492 million for fiscal 2014-15 and $495 million for fiscal 2015-16.

– John Coté

Front and center: As Bay Area transportation officials assemble a plan to get Caltrain electrification and advanced train control projects funded as part of the California high-speed rail project, San Francisco officials want to make sure they don’t forget about the Transbay Terminal – and the 1.5-mile downtown extension to take fast trains into the Financial District.

As The Chronicle reported last month, officials with Bay Area transportation agencies are working on a proposed agreement with the High-Speed Rail Authority that would fund the Caltrain improvements, and get them built perhaps as soon as 2016 – five to 10 years earlier than previous estimates.

“Any contract we enter into as a region, needs to be very clear that Diridon (station in San Jose) and the Transbay Terminal are part of the equation,” San Francisco SupervisorScott Wiener said Wednesday at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission meeting. That agency is brokering the plan.